This invention relates generally to clothes dryers and, more particularly, to a novel open air collapsible clothes dryer.
Even with the advent of sophisticated automatic clothes dryers, there is still a demand for open air dryers from which clothes and other laundry can be hung to dry. These types of dryers remain popular for a number of different reasons. First, many clothing manufacturers continue to recommend line drying their apparel items, especially those made of delicate or shrinkage-prone fabrics. Oftentimes a clothesline is not available or practical, especially in the winter and in the instance of apartment dwellers. Those living in apartments further may wish to dry less delicate items of clothing in this fashion for other reasons such as to avoid ironing, to save the expense of coin operated drying machines and to protect more valuable items of clothing.
While this type of clothes dryer thereby provides a number of advantages, it presents one main disadvantage, namely the storage of the device. Those living in apartments may have limited space and even homeowners often need to store such devices conveniently out of sight. To provide a clothes dryer of suitable size which can also be conveniently stored, these dryers are often made to be expansible and collapsible and are often formed of pieces of tubular plastic strategically hinged together.
This type of device, however, can have several inherent disadvantages. Although lightweight, it can be flimsy and unable to support the weight of wet clothing. More sturdy devices are often heavier and can be difficult to transport or may require more than one person to assemble and disassemble. There is therefore a need for a portable collapsible open air clothes dryer which is sturdy and easily manipulated as well as which can be compacted into a convenient size and shape for storage. Such a clothes dryer also preferably should be simple and inexpensive to manufacture.
The present open air laundry dryer achieves these advantages by providing a generally rectangular, free-standing frame-based structure having removably attachable components which can be easily assembled or disassembled by one person in about a minute. A base supports a pair of opposing side members extending transversely thereabove. Each side member includes a cross member extending between a pair of vertical legs and a horizontal support bar secured to one end of each leg. An auxiliary support member is removably attachable to one of the horizontal support bars and a plurality of article support elements such as clotheslines are suspended between the auxiliary support bar and the other horizontal support bar in a spaced parallel relationship.
Additional objects, advantages, and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.